Why Is My Dryer Not Getting Hot?

A dryer with no heat is one of the few appliance faults where the free checks genuinely solve a meaningful share of calls. Work through this page in order before you book anything, because two of the four causes cost nothing to rule out.

Start Here: the Two Free Checks

1. Half a breaker, on electric dryers only

An electric dryer is fed by a 240-volt circuit made of two 120-volt legs. The motor and the drum light run on one leg; the heating element needs both. When one leg is lost, at the breaker, at a loose lug or at a worn outlet, you get exactly the symptom on this page: the machine runs perfectly and never gets warm.

Switch the double breaker fully off, wait a moment, and push it firmly back on. A half-tripped double breaker often looks closed but is not seated, and this single action fixes a meaningful number of no-heat calls at no cost. If it trips again immediately, stop and book a diagnosis rather than resetting repeatedly.

2. Airflow at the outside hood

Run the dryer on high heat and hold a hand at the outside vent termination. Strong warm air means the duct is clear. Weak air, or none, means the duct is restricted, and that matters even when the complaint is no heat rather than slow drying, because a restricted duct is what blows thermal fuses in the first place.

This is the check that separates a repair that lasts from one that fails again in three months. Replacing a thermal fuse without clearing the duct is treating the symptom: the fuse did its job, and it will do it again.

Electric Dryers: What Fails and in What Order

The order matters. A technician who replaces an element without testing the fuse and the thermostats has fixed one of three parts that failed together, and you will see them again. Overheating on a restricted duct damages the whole heat path, not one component of it.

Gas Dryers: the Igniter That Glows and Does Nothing

A gas dryer lights its burner with a glow igniter, and that igniter has a second job most people never hear about: it has to draw enough current through the circuit to tell the gas valve coils it is safe to open. As an igniter ages it still glows, brightly and convincingly, while drawing too little to open the valve.

So the classic gas no-heat fault looks like this: you can see a glow through the inspection port, the glow eventually fades, and nothing ever ignites. The machine then tries again a few times before giving up. That is an igniter, not a valve, and it is one of the more affordable repairs in the category.

If the igniter is healthy and the valve still will not open, the coils follow. They come as a set and are replaced together in the same visit, which is why an experienced technician carries both. The one thing not to do on a gas machine is run it repeatedly hoping it catches: gas that does not ignite has to go somewhere.

What This Repair Costs

Every figure below is from our own completed jobs, with the base stated.

Seventy-nine percent of our dryer repairs finish under $400, which is the honest context for any no-heat quote you are holding. If a quote is far above that band, ask which parts are being replaced and why: it is usually a heat path damaged by months of restricted airflow, and in that case the duct work is part of the repair rather than an upsell. The full breakdown by part is in the dryer repair cost database.

What Not to Do

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• Do not simply replace the thermal fuse and carry on. The fuse is a safety device that reacted to something. Find out what
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• Do not bypass a fuse or a thermostat, ever. That device is the only thing standing between a restricted duct and a lint fire
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• Do not keep restarting a gas dryer that will not light. Give it up after two attempts and book the visit
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• Do not assume a new machine solves it. If the duct is the cause, the new dryer arrives into the same problem
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• Do not run it on high with a suspected restriction. That is precisely the condition that damages the rest of the heat path
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Prevention, Which Is Mostly the Duct

Almost every expensive no-heat repair we attend traces back to airflow. The prevention list is short and worth doing.

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• Clean the lint screen every load, and wash it with soap and water twice a year to remove softener film
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• Have the full duct run cleaned once a year, more often with a long run, several bends or a roof termination
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• Replace flexible plastic duct with rigid or semi-rigid metal: the published life of plastic duct is five years against twenty for steel
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• Check the outside hood flap actually opens, and is not painted shut or nested in
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• Treat a lengthening cycle as the early warning it is, rather than waiting for the machine to stop
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The full context on why the duct decides the life of the appliance is in how long dryers last, and our Florida guide to how often a vent needs cleaning covers humid-climate intervals.

When It Is Not the Heat at All

Two other faults produce the same complaint from the laundry room.

The first is a machine that heats correctly but cannot move the moist air out, so clothes stay damp and feel cold. That is airflow again, and it is covered in why a dryer takes forever.

The second is an overloaded drum. A load packed to the top tumbles as a single mass, so the hot air never passes through it. Everything comes out cold and damp on a machine with nothing wrong. Half a load, run as a test, settles that question in forty minutes.

What a Proper No-Heat Diagnosis Covers

So you can judge whether the visit you are paying for is thorough, here is the sequence we run on a no-heat call, in order.

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• Supply first. On electric, both legs measured at the terminal block, and the block itself inspected for burnt or discoloured terminals, which is a fault in its own right and a fire risk
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• Airflow second. Static pressure or a hand test at the termination, plus a look at the transition hose behind the machine, which is crushed against the wall more often than anything else in the duct run
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• The safety devices. Thermal fuse, high-limit and cycling thermostats, tested rather than assumed, because one blown fuse frequently sits alongside a thermostat that has already been running out of spec
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• The heat source. Element continuity and resistance on electric, igniter draw and valve coil resistance on gas, flame sensor on both gas types
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• The controls. Timer or board checked last, once the heat path is proved, because it is the most expensive assumption to get wrong
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• A test cycle. The machine is run with the repair in place and the exhaust temperature checked, so the fix is confirmed rather than hoped for
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That last step is the one most often skipped elsewhere and the reason a repair either holds or comes back. A heat path that has been overheating for months rarely leaves one part damaged.

Losing one leg of a 240-volt supply explains both a dryer that turns without heating and one that is completely dead: dryer not turning on.

Frequently Asked Questions